Think Outside the (Lunch)box: Oatmeal Cookies for Lunch

This week we have a special week planned. It's Think Outside the (Lunch)box Week! We’ve asked some of our favorite healthy bloggers to come “visit” our blog this week and give you their ideas for healthy school lunches. School lunch season is fast approaching, and it’s so easy to buy a box of prepackaged goodies at the store and send them with our children, or simply send them the same lunch every day. But is what we send healthy? Or does it even taste good? And goodness knows it's not just he kids' lunches that need improving. What about yours?

Today we are addressing the problem of a sandwich. While they are perfectly good for some of the time, I remember sandwiches in my school lunches often being smashed by the time I ate them, or soggy. (It reminds me of a blog post by Stephanie of nieniediologues talking about eating her children’s lunch when they left it home and finding out it was disgusting by lunch time, even though she had been packing them with care.)

What if we were to give our kids something that had all the nutrients of a sandwich without actually having it be a sandwich? What if we were to give our kids healthy cookies for lunch?

Preposterous, you say.

Yup. Maybe. But these aren’t just any cookies. That wouldn’t do. But with the right (healthy) ingredients you could be the hero of the lunchroom and save us all from the soggy sandwich.

You. The hero of the lunchroom.

Just think about it.

 

Look! A complete meal without a sandwich!

Banana Apple Version

Ingredients
3 eggs
2 T almond milk or milk of your choosing
1 tsp vanilla
1 C raisins or dried fruit
1/2 C nuts (pumpkin seeds, pecans, cashews, almonds etc..)
1 C ripe banana smashed or applesauce or pumpkin puree
1 apple chopped in small pieces or grated zucchini or grated carrots   
1/2 C honey
1/8 to 1/4 C almond butter or peanut butter (optional)
1/4 C coconut oil
2 1/2 C  spelt flour (or any combination of whole grain flours)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 C old-fashioned oatmeal

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Version
ingredients above but instead:
1 C of pumpkin puree instead of banana
1 C of dark chocolate chips
omit peanut butter

Directions
1. In a small bowl pour eggs, milk, vanilla and raisins, dried fruit, and zucchini or carrots. Stir them all together. Let soak about an hour to let them soften.

2. Place parchment paper on cookie sheet. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour nuts onto the parchment paper and place in oven.  Bake until lightly toasted.

3. After you have let it soak an hour, pour into bowl with banana, honey, apple, peanut butter, and oil. Stir until all mixed together.

4. In a different bowl measure and pour all the dry ingredients. Whisk together. Combine with wet mixture. Stir just until moistened.

5. Put parchment paper on to the cookie sheet. Scoop on the size of cookie you want. Gently flatten cookies before putting in the oven.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.      

Come back every day this week for fabulous recipes from some brilliant bloggers. There is a lot more lunch goodness to come!